The perishable foods sections of most supermarkets and grocery stores such as the meat department, bakery, deli and produce department, typically include one or more in-store scales having printers for printing labels with item name, weight or count, and price information. The labels are then applied to the packaged items. Many such printers are provided as part of in-store scales or systems including scales.
Increasingly, in-store equipment such as scales/scale systems may include a communications link for receiving information from sites external to the store. As used herein the term scale system refers to any scale device or any larger device that includes a scale, such as a weigh/wrap machine. For example, prior art scale systems exist in which pricing information in the goods database is updated remotely from a central location so that all related stores in a chain use the same pricing scheme. Chain personnel can also use communications links with in-store scale systems to monitor scale status/function. Still further, prior art in-store scale systems exist that are capable of printing two labels, one which includes the product and price information for a given product and another that prints a marketing message for that same product or prints a generic marketing message. An example of such a prior art system is illustrated in FIG. 16 where a store 300 is shown and external site 302 is shown. A scale system 304 including a controller 306 and associated printer 308 is located in the store 302, along with a second printer 310 that is connected to controller 306 for control thereby. The controller 306 is also connected via communications link 312 to a computer 314 at external site 302. In the illustrated system, computer 314 has been used to control pricing information used by scale 304 for printing on a first label by printer 308, and to also control merchandising messages printed on a second, separate label by printer 310, where the pricing information printed by printer 308 and the merchandising information printed by printer 310 related to the same product. Examples of merchandising messages printed on the second label by printer 310 include “Great For The Grill” or “100% Pure Ground Beef” or “50¢ Off”. Such prior art systems have also been used to print similar merchandising messages, regarding the product to which a pricing label is applied, on the pricing label itself. This system did not provide for any cross-marketing type incentives.
It is known to provide coupon dispensing printers at the point of sale in supermarkets and groceries. Typically such coupon dispensers print coupon or other incentive information on paper stock based upon purchases made or not made by the consumer. For example, the items scanned at the point of sale are tracked and a database of incentives to be provided based upon the purchase of a certain product, combination of products, or an amount of a certain product or combination of products may be used to generate incentives for printing at the point of sale. Likewise, the database may generate incentives based upon the failure of the consumer to purchase a certain product or combination of products, or an incentive may be generated based upon identifying the customer and referring to a prior shopping history. While such systems have proven somewhat effective, they still suffer the drawback of not placing the incentive into the possession of a consumer until the consumer is on the way out the door.
Product manufacturers, distributors, advertisers and store operators are continually looking for new and improved ways to market and advertise products within the store. Accordingly, given the number of labels printed on a daily basis by such scales, and the fact that the packages containing such labels are typically placed directly in front of consumers or into the consumer's hands, it would be desirable to utilize such scales to deliver marketing and promotional messages for numerous products in a controlled manner.